If you want these three Russian works together on one Compact Disc, this one is worth thinking about. Each piece is useful to a collector who is interested in a representative picture of the piano music of these Russian composers over the fin de siecle period, and few would quarrel with the choice both of composers and of music. Also Ronald Smith is a skilful pianist who plays with conviction.
Having said that, I must confess to some reservations. Smith's sense of rhythm is individual and there are indulgences in a kind of freedom which will not be to everyone's taste. I'm thinking especially of pieces such as ''Gnomus'' and ''The Old Castle'' in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition where a firm delivery may be thought to be essential to the music and where Smith permits himself fluctuations which for my ears endanger its character. Even ''Bydlo'' (taken surprisingly fast) is given an oddly lightweight quality and ''Limoges'' is technically untidy. All this is emphasized by the pianist's restraint in the use of the sustaining pedal. Similarly, anyone following the score of Scriabin's Ninth Sonata while listening, as I have done, may well find this account metrically capricious even by the standards of a composer who, as Smith himself says in his booklet note, indulges himself in ''almost desperate sensuality'', and although there are many individual felicities, the performance of the fine Balakirev Sonata does not have a sufficient depth and richness of sonority.
The recording is clear enough but not very immediate, while dynamic range is not as full as it should be (for example, Mussorgsky's Cum mortuis in lingua mortua isn't pianissimo); and there are a few external noises that sound like birdsong, for example in the preceding ''Catacombs'', as well as what sounds like an unconvincing edit into ''The Great Gate of Kiev'' from the preceding broken octaves. This recital is certainly worth hearing—and having too, though it would be more attractive at medium price—but do be prepared for idiosyncracies.'